2016 news highlights: Amelia Lester

It’s hard to think of a bigger news story this year than the election of Donald Trump to the most powerful job in the world. In July, I sent Nick O’Malley, former Fairfax US correspondent, to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, to report on Trump’s takeover of the party of Abraham Lincoln and to put this unprecedented occurrence into perspective for an Australian reader. Tim Beor, the creative director of Fairfax Magazines, worked with illustrator Sam Bennett on a cover which would instantly and dramatically convey Trump wresting control of the Republican circus, as well as his careening, chaotic nature. It’s an image which forces you to take notice, and as Nick’s piece inside demonstrates, that’s precisely what we must do.